Welcome

Welcome to the personal web
site of Starweaver, Wiccan priest, tarot and
astrology practitioner, and dabbler in the visual
arts. This site is an expression of my own
personality: sometimes focused, sometimes fanciful,
always fluid. I hope you find this a place of
beauty, wisdom, and warmth.

Feature
Article

Moon
Signs for Ritual

Learn to
use the Zodiac signs to plan your Full Moon
rituals

For
many Pagans, the Full Moon is the most magical of
times, the ideal occasion for ritual and for
creating change. Although any Full Moon can be used
effectively for ritual, it is helpful to know which
sign of the Zodiac the Full Moon is in, and how
that effects the energies at work. This article
introduces the basic concepts of the Moon signs and
their implications for magic and ritual.

As
the Moon moves through the signs of the Zodiac, the
quality of its energy changes. Just as our
personalities can be described in terms of the
position of the Sun and Moon at the time of birth,
the changing moods and energies of our daily lives
can be correlated with the passage of the Moon
through the Zodiac each month. . .

Moon
Magic for August, September, and
October

Starweaver's
look at upcoming full moons and dark moons and the
energies they have to offer for magic and ritual.
Astronomical
Moon data now included.

Dark Moon in
Leo, August 1, 4:14 am

Best
evening for ritual: July 31 (Thursday)

Theme:
Penning the Proclamation

The
Sun, Moon, and Mercury are closely conjunct at this
Dark Moon, which occurs on the traditional date of
Lughnassad. The Sun's power is in its full force
now, during the culmination of summer. Take this
time to reflect on your own personal power, and how
your light and warmth spread out into the world. If
you were Sun King, what proclamation would you
write on this day?

The
Spirit of Water

Water
is one of the four classical elements (air, fire,
water, and earth). Liquid water, more than
anything, sets our planet apart from the lifeless
worlds elsewhere in the solar system. Most of our
planet's surface is covered by water, and we
ourselves are mostly water. Life first emerged in
the seas, and we carry that watery legacy with us
in our bodies and our physical memories.

Water
in nature is a rich and varied thing. From the
enormity and power of the ocean, stretching farther
than our eyes can sea, and crashing to shore with a
great roaring power, to the tranquility of a
mountain stream or quiet pool, water is a substance
of many moods. As a vapor, it permeates the air we
breathe and condenses into clouds. As ice, it
covers the lands and oceans of the poles, and the
peaks of mountains.
. .

Blogbits

Lughnassad,
a Tale of Reward

As summer reaches its
culmination, Halekern finds unexpected rewards for
his labors.

A
man labored in a large bare field, chopping and
turning the earth with a crude metal blade attached
to a long stick. He wore a simple tunic, with a
cord around the waist. The sweat dripped from his
brow, and the Sun moved steadily westward as he
worked. Evening was at hand, and he was exhausted,
hungry and thirsty, but he labored on, hoeing the
hard earth until it was too dark to see.

The
man's name was Halekern, and he had worked this
field for many years. This year, though, things
were different. It had begun late last autumn, when
sickness had taken four of the other villagers.
Then came a strange winter, wet and mild. The
stores of grain the village had kept for the winter
became moldy and foul, and much of it was lost. It
would be a cruel season, with little bread to eat
and with memories of the untimely deaths shrouding
the village like an overcast sky. Halekern came to
understand that with less grain to plant in the
spring, and fewer able-bodied men and women to work
the fields, the village might not survive another
year.
. .

Rune
Lore: Uruz

Uruz
(pronounced OOH-rooz) was used to represent
the u sound in runic writing in all the
Germanic languages. The name signifies the aurochs,
an enormous form of wild cattle, now extinct.
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem sums up the qualities
of this creature well:

The
aurochs is proud and has great horns;
it is a very savage beast and fights with its
horns;
a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of
mettle.

Of
the various animals connected with the runes, the
aurochs is the most fierce, the most primal, the
most massive. It is the power of the wild earth
incarnate: strong and determined. It is unstoppable
in motion, and immovable at rest. Today, with most
animals that humans find threatening being driven
to extinction, it is becoming hard to project
ourselves back to a time when we were often at the
mercy of the animals that roamed the Earth, rather
than the other way
around.
. .

Pilfered
Wisdom

Our bread
need not ever be sour or hard to digest. What
Nature is to the mind she is also to the body. As
she feeds my imagination, she will feed my body;
for what she says she means, and is ready to do.
She is not simply beautiful to the poets eye.
Not only the rainbow and sunset are beautiful, but
to be fed and clothed, sheltered and warmed aright,
are equally beautiful and inspiring. There is not
necessarily any gross and ugly fact which may not
be eradicated from the life of man.

-
Henry David Thoreau

In the next
issue...

The next
issue of Gems from Earth and Sky marks the
one year anniversary of this site in its present
form. Expect a new look and some changes in the
content as well!